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White Jacket
'Vivien Bromwich surgeon attracted to fellow surgeon Johnny Dysart but falls for attractive newcomer Edward Featherstone. A series of mysterious incidents at the hospital turns into "whodunit" which was to change their lives.'
- GenresHarlequin Romance
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 25, 2020
Woo-hoo, the rare instance of a book by Olive Norton (aka Kate Norway, Hilary Neal, Bess Norton) that
doesn't
suffer from the usual drawbacks of:
(1) way, way, way too many sub-plots; and
(2) an absentee/ 'catch-a-fleeting-glimpse-and-he's-gone' hero.
'The White Jacket', when republished by Corgi books, was billed more as a 'mystery/ who-dunnit' than a category romance. This is understandable given the novel's primary plot-line is the mystery surrounding 'Edward Featherstone', the new 'tawny eyed tango king' hospital porter at Queen's.
Mr. 'Featherstone' is sufficiently magnetic to mesmerise young trainee surgeon, Vivian Bromwich, who finds herself powerless to resist him notwithstanding her halfhearted/ unofficial engagement to surgical registrar, Johnny Dysart. So in thrall to Featherstone is she, that naive Vivian even borrows money from him - an action which returns to bite her (hard) later on.
Having read a number of Olive Norton's books, I wonder if she ought have more obviously focused on writing mystery stories in hospital settings, rather than opting to massage her stories into the medical romance category. If you're a stand-out author, like Lucilla Andrews, I think you can probably manage to build a plot line that addresses both elements, but in most of Olive Norton's books it seems the hospital romance (such as it is) only muddles the main story-line.
Certainly, this is the case in 'The White Jacket', where, although the novel's hero is not perpetually elsewhere , the romance element is something of an anxious afterthought. It's only in the final four or five pages of the book that the hero shows his colours and presses the heroine to make up her mind about marrying him. And, even then, the urgency is motivated by the fact that his feelings for her are distracting him from his work...
In summary - this is one of Olive Norton's better books, the enjoyable mystery element taking the edges off a lacklustre romantic sub-plot; I'm rating it a three-and-a-half star vintage romance read. Given a choice though, I'd suggest Factory Nurse or The Morning Star as her better titles.
(1) way, way, way too many sub-plots; and
(2) an absentee/ 'catch-a-fleeting-glimpse-and-he's-gone' hero.
'The White Jacket', when republished by Corgi books, was billed more as a 'mystery/ who-dunnit' than a category romance. This is understandable given the novel's primary plot-line is the mystery surrounding 'Edward Featherstone', the new 'tawny eyed tango king' hospital porter at Queen's.
Mr. 'Featherstone' is sufficiently magnetic to mesmerise young trainee surgeon, Vivian Bromwich, who finds herself powerless to resist him notwithstanding her halfhearted/ unofficial engagement to surgical registrar, Johnny Dysart. So in thrall to Featherstone is she, that naive Vivian even borrows money from him - an action which returns to bite her (hard) later on.
Having read a number of Olive Norton's books, I wonder if she ought have more obviously focused on writing mystery stories in hospital settings, rather than opting to massage her stories into the medical romance category. If you're a stand-out author, like Lucilla Andrews, I think you can probably manage to build a plot line that addresses both elements, but in most of Olive Norton's books it seems the hospital romance (such as it is) only muddles the main story-line.
Certainly, this is the case in 'The White Jacket', where, although the novel's hero is not perpetually elsewhere , the romance element is something of an anxious afterthought. It's only in the final four or five pages of the book that the hero shows his colours and presses the heroine to make up her mind about marrying him. And, even then, the urgency is motivated by the fact that his feelings for her are distracting him from his work...
In summary - this is one of Olive Norton's better books, the enjoyable mystery element taking the edges off a lacklustre romantic sub-plot; I'm rating it a three-and-a-half star vintage romance read. Given a choice though, I'd suggest Factory Nurse or The Morning Star as her better titles.
March 16, 2025
As a romance this didn’t really work. However, I did enjoy reading this one and the mystery was good.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews